Danny Sheridan Accused of Buying Twitter Followers

The websites Wagerminds and Beyond the Bets have accused USA Today sports analyst Danny Sheridan of buying twitter followers. Sheridan’s account increased from 11,000 followers in April to a current total of around 365,000. Many of the followers appear to be spambots.

Sheridan’s follower count skyrocketed from 11,000 to nearly 200,000 in just 8 weeks. And then, in the following 2 weeks, he tacked on another 120,000 followers to bring his total follower count to 333,900. Now, this meteoric rise in Danny Sheridan’s popularity is hard to explain (see graph below). After all, the guy has been writing for USA Today for ages so why, suddenly, did Sheridan become such a big hit on Twitter?